Commentary: March Madness: Year of the underdog?

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(Caitlin Dutt/AQ)

It’s March so obviously the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament is in full effect. This past weekend saw some major upsets and it made for great TV. However, analysts all over the world are saying this is terrible for the rest of the tournament. But, how can that be? The big schools have been beaten, but analysts like to see the big names in the final four of the tournament. They must not be looking at the bracket, because the best of both worlds can come for the audience and the media.

In the case of the fans the upset teams are still in the tournament. Loyola-Chicago, an 11 seed, beat a number six Miami team and then beat number three Tennessee. The world has fallen in love with this team. They have a few older players and this is different from the freshman-laden teams who have players declare for the NBA after one year. They won their first game by two and then beat Tennessee by a single point.

Nevada is their opponent for the next round and they’re underdogs as well. They were a seven seed team and had to make a major comeback to stay in the tournament. They trailed number two Cincinnati by 22 points in the second half of the game and then rallied to move on to the sweet 16. It was the biggest comeback in 20 years and a small program is all of a sudden in a position to make a deep run in the tournament.

There are other teams as well, but these two took the weekend by storm.

There are still major teams playing in the final weekend of the tournament. Two number one seeds have been beaten but there are still two that remain.

Kansas and Villanova are still playing but there are also some major lower seeds. Duke University is well known when it comes to basketball and they have looked pretty good through two games

University of Kentucky is another team the media forgets about. They have a lot of freshman but they have looked very strong and have one of the best coaches in all of basketball, John Calipari.

Gonzaga University is also still playing and they made the finals last year and are a team people seem to like.

In the grand scheme of things this time of year is great for sports. The NBA and NHL playoffs will start in under three weeks and this tournament ends just before that. There is not much to complain about so I hope the media and some of the fans take this message.

My final four are Villanova, Duke, Michigan and Kentucky. I have Villanova winning over Michigan in the final and this would be their second title in three years.